Meet the producers and learn about navigating the wiki.
How Things Are
In 1984, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar Earth. The world is controlled by three superstates. Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. These governments each have different names, and are in a constant state of war, but they all function similarly. This function is the absolute control of a citizen's mind and actions. A map of the world of1984, representing the three governments of the world. Oceania is in pink, Eurasia in purple, Eastasia in green, and disputed territory in yellow.
When Capitalism fell, this crude totalitarianism under the guise of Socialism took the world by storm. The leaders of these three governments have been able to keep the world stagnant in hierarchal control. There is the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and then the majority of poor citizens called Proles.
Despite the seeming chaos of the world, everything is controlled strictly by the governments. Even war is simply made for the sake of control within ones owns borders, and not to control any other state, it is simply an illusion set forth by each government in order to retain control of their citizenry and maintain the hierarchal structure. A pyramid representing the hierarchal structure found in the numerous governments. This one in particular shows the population segments of Oceania.
Newspeak
Newspeak is the language used under Ingsoc that is quickly growing in popularity during 1984. Unlike most languages, Newspeak's goal is to destroy words, not create new ones. Most synonyms, adjectives, and adverbs have long been destroyed, and as O'Brien explains to Winston later in the novel, by 2050, Newspeak will have achieved its ultimate goal.
That goal is to destroy individual thought. Newspeak allows only common talk such as pointing out an object, saying you're hungry, and the like. All of the rest concerns politics and statistics. By slowly decimating the existence of words, Ingsoc makes it so not only is it unlikely a citizen of Oceania will have rebellious thoughts, but that it would be literally impossible for someone to formulate the words necessary in their mind to have rebellious thoughts. Newspeak has one goal: Control.
The Social Structure
As was touched on earlier, each government in the world of 1984 has their own hierarchal structure with different names, but each of them are almost indistinguishable in their roles and their citizens' mannerisms.
Inner Party: Out of all of the classes, the Inner Party are the most privileged, but at the same time, the most sacrificing. Only containing two percent of the population, the Inner Party is a group shrouded in mystery. While they seem to have the least of the government's terrifying control, it is only because they simply do not require control. Members of the Inner Party have so deluded their thoughts into subservience to Ingsoc and Big Brother that they are practically like mind slaves. O'Brien is in the Inner Party.
Outer Party: At a little over ten percent of the population, it is a wonder that the Outer Party requires the most control out of all three of the classes. These citizens are privileged with homes, jobs, and a number of other rudimentary needs, but they are under the highest observation from Ingsoc. Wilson and Julia are in the Outer Party.
The Proles: Eighty-five percent of Oceania's population belong to the Proles. Out of all the classes, the Proles are the poorest, most miserable, and least-nourished class in the state. Despite their poor standards of living and incredible death rate, they are rarely regulated by Ingsoc, even telescreens are absent in most Prole cities. Proles are incredibly simple people who are largely uninterested in Ingsoc. Because of this, they are not seen as a threat, simply as tools.
Ingsoc
Ingsoc stands for English Socialism. Ingsoc is like the Inner Party, it controls all that happens within the party and goes to extensive means in order to keep order and meet its needs. One of their needs is prevention of a rebellion. To prevent rebellion they use Newspeak. Newspeak is working to destroy any words that can be formulated to talk or even think about rebelling against the party. Another measure they take to prevent rebellion is the implementing of the Thought Police. The thought police appear to be ordinary people, but really they are monitoring the world for any sign that hints rebellion. They carefully watch all people, and if they see signs to possible rebellion they come to arrest them in the night. Some say the Thought Police warn you before they come, and the courageous thing to do is commit suicide. However, most believe that they will get to you before you ever know it. Ingsoc wants to shape everyone into their very own reality, and their reality consists of a thoughtless world. They are looking to create empty people wandering helplessly about the earth performing monotonous routines every day.
The Immortal System
The system implemented by the 'inner party' type class of each faction to keep their country under control. The way this works is they provide their citizens with a very low standard of living and through this they will never expect to have anymore. Big Brother forces its citizens to use a policy called 'Doublethink'. Doublethink is newspeak for being able to think of a paradox and accept both contrasts as absolute truth. Also Doublethink allows a person to erase a previous truth from his or her mind and replace it with a newly formed truth. This allows the party to tell its citizens that they were always at war with a certain country even when they had been allied with them in the previous second. With the transfer of forever-war from one country to another, it is easy for the civilians to maintain a hatred. Doublethink works through a tactic called 'Blackwhite'. This allows a person to see a lie but convince themselves it is the truth. Such as a person sees black but they know it to be white. The Inner Party makes sure that it constantly stays at war in order to keep supplies low. By keeping supplies low, the citizens really don't expect to have much. Because of the implemented systems, the party can be sure that a resistance is never sustained.
Meet the producers and learn about navigating the wiki.
How Things Are
In 1984, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar Earth. The world is controlled by three superstates. Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. These governments each have different names, and are in a constant state of war, but they all function similarly. This function is the absolute control of a citizen's mind and actions.
A map of the world of 1984, representing the three governments of the world. Oceania is in pink, Eurasia in purple, Eastasia in green, and disputed territory in yellow.
When Capitalism fell, this crude totalitarianism under the guise of Socialism took the world by storm. The leaders of these three governments have been able to keep the world stagnant in hierarchal control. There is the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and then the majority of poor citizens called Proles.
Despite the seeming chaos of the world, everything is controlled strictly by the governments. Even war is simply made for the sake of control within ones owns borders, and not to control any other state, it is simply an illusion set forth by each government in order to retain control of their citizenry and maintain the hierarchal structure.
A pyramid representing the hierarchal structure found in the numerous governments. This one in particular shows the population segments of Oceania.
Newspeak
Newspeak is the language used under Ingsoc that is quickly growing in popularity during 1984. Unlike most languages, Newspeak's goal is to destroy words, not create new ones. Most synonyms, adjectives, and adverbs have long been destroyed, and as O'Brien explains to Winston later in the novel, by 2050, Newspeak will have achieved its ultimate goal.
That goal is to destroy individual thought. Newspeak allows only common talk such as pointing out an object, saying you're hungry, and the like. All of the rest concerns politics and statistics. By slowly decimating the existence of words, Ingsoc makes it so not only is it unlikely a citizen of Oceania will have rebellious thoughts, but that it would be literally impossible for someone to formulate the words necessary in their mind to have rebellious thoughts. Newspeak has one goal: Control.
The Social Structure
As was touched on earlier, each government in the world of 1984 has their own hierarchal structure with different names, but each of them are almost indistinguishable in their roles and their citizens' mannerisms.
Inner Party: Out of all of the classes, the Inner Party are the most privileged, but at the same time, the most sacrificing. Only containing two percent of the population, the Inner Party is a group shrouded in mystery. While they seem to have the least of the government's terrifying control, it is only because they simply do not require control. Members of the Inner Party have so deluded their thoughts into subservience to Ingsoc and Big Brother that they are practically like mind slaves. O'Brien is in the Inner Party.
Outer Party: At a little over ten percent of the population, it is a wonder that the Outer Party requires the most control out of all three of the classes. These citizens are privileged with homes, jobs, and a number of other rudimentary needs, but they are under the highest observation from Ingsoc. Wilson and Julia are in the Outer Party.
The Proles: Eighty-five percent of Oceania's population belong to the Proles. Out of all the classes, the Proles are the poorest, most miserable, and least-nourished class in the state. Despite their poor standards of living and incredible death rate, they are rarely regulated by Ingsoc, even telescreens are absent in most Prole cities. Proles are incredibly simple people who are largely uninterested in Ingsoc. Because of this, they are not seen as a threat, simply as tools.
Ingsoc
Ingsoc stands for English Socialism. Ingsoc is like the Inner Party, it controls all that happens within the party and goes to extensive means in order to keep order and meet its needs. One of their needs is prevention of a rebellion. To prevent rebellion they use Newspeak. Newspeak is working to destroy any words that can be formulated to talk or even think about rebelling against the party. Another measure they take to prevent rebellion is the implementing of the Thought Police. The thought police appear to be ordinary people, but really they are monitoring the world for any sign that hints rebellion. They carefully watch all people, and if they see signs to possible rebellion they come to arrest them in the night. Some say the Thought Police warn you before they come, and the courageous thing to do is commit suicide. However, most believe that they will get to you before you ever know it. Ingsoc wants to shape everyone into their very own reality, and their reality consists of a thoughtless world. They are looking to create empty people wandering helplessly about the earth performing monotonous routines every day.
The Immortal System
The system implemented by the 'inner party' type class of each faction to keep their country under control. The way this works is they provide their citizens with a very low standard of living and through this they will never expect to have anymore. Big Brother forces its citizens to use a policy called 'Doublethink'. Doublethink is newspeak for being able to think of a paradox and accept both contrasts as absolute truth. Also Doublethink allows a person to erase a previous truth from his or her mind and replace it with a newly formed truth. This allows the party to tell its citizens that they were always at war with a certain country even when they had been allied with them in the previous second. With the transfer of forever-war from one country to another, it is easy for the civilians to maintain a hatred. Doublethink works through a tactic called 'Blackwhite'. This allows a person to see a lie but convince themselves it is the truth. Such as a person sees black but they know it to be white. The Inner Party makes sure that it constantly stays at war in order to keep supplies low. By keeping supplies low, the citizens really don't expect to have much. Because of the implemented systems, the party can be sure that a resistance is never sustained.
Through this, the party is preserved.